OOHHH that smell!!!!!!!!!

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Posted by ray126 (My Page) on Thu, Sep 3, 09 at 7:28


I just don't know what to do. I live across from a chicken farm and the owner recently got some cows.
I can handle chicken smells, cow smells and have been for a year with no problems.

A few months ago the farmer brought in these HUGE round hay bales and put them near my property line.

They small really really bad. Like your standing in the middle of the local dump. A real sour smell. I'd hoped the smells would go away at some point but they have not.

I'm thinking of selling my house.

Is it normal for round bales of hay to smell so bad? I mean REALLY REALLY bad? Is there any info I can pass on to the farmer? Is he buying bad hay?

He has them wrapped in white plastic.




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Posted by marlingardener 8b (My Page) on Thu, Sep 3, 09 at 7:44

Sounds like the hay is rotting. If it was baled while it had a high moisture content, then wrapped in plastic, that can happen. At the least you can ask him to move the hay farther from your house. If the farmer bought the hay and put it on the fenceline, and hasn't visited it since, he may not know of the stench, or the cause of it.



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Posted by lavender_lass WA zone 4 (My Page) on Thu, Sep 3, 09 at 16:39

If the hay was bailed wet, it could be a fire hazard. Damp hay can smolder for months in the middle and then start a fire. I would let the farmer know immediately and make sure he checks on the hay and hopefully moves it. I would think he'd be responsible for any fire damages. That might encourage him to do something right away.



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Posted by fancifowl 5Pa (My Page) on Thu, Sep 3, 09 at 20:45

Sounds like haylage to me. Silage made from hay is riolled up a bit damp and ferments for cattle feed. It shouldnt smell that bad tho?? maybe he poked holes in the wrap moving them and air got in causing ther wrong kind of fermentaion to take place. The smell should ease up soon.



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Posted by mikes100acdreamfarm (My Page) on Fri, Sep 4, 09 at 3:04

It would definitely be haylage a type of silage made from hay bales. Regular hay is wrapped in either twine or netting. The plastic allows the moisture to be held to ferment it. It will have a sweetish sour fetid smell, somewhat unpleasant at first but it does diminish after a while. Maybe time to plant some aromatic vines on your fence row if it is too overpowering and he plans to store it there in the future.



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Posted by jean001 z8aPortland, OR (My Page) on Fri, Sep 4, 09 at 23:00

It was said "Maybe time to plant some aromatic vines on your fence row if it is too overpowering and he plans to store it there in the future."
Why?

Just explain the problem to the farmer and ask him to please move the stuff. Surely there's somewhere less bothersome to put it.





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Posted by yakimadn Germany (My Page) on Sat, Sep 5, 09 at 18:45

Best way in the world to get rid of nagging/undesireable neighbors.........
Maybe the farmer's not the problem????

What you have there is silage bales.I love the smell of silage!

just got a kick out of the whole thing. Reminded me of someone on here complaining about a plowday when someone spread sh!t on the field first.

Dave

I love the smell of the haylage when Dad digs into the bag for a feeding myself. Espescially makes me happy to know the cows are practically blowing their teats out milking on the stuff. Throw some 3rd crop bales on top of that and look out!

Never stand behind a coughing cow.

Donovan from Wisconsin

If those bales were baled too wet they could have formed butyric acid inside which absolutely reeks. Throw in a couple of holes in the plastic from birds or rodents and you have some really stinky hay.

Best thing would be to ask the farmer to move the bales to another location. If my diagnosis is correct then they are garbage and no good for feeding.

Jake

Hey - you can't put that stuff on the ground anymore. Any tree-hugger will tell you the run off will pollute the ground and river water!:^)

Have friend that just inherited a house and some acreage next to a animal rendering plant. When the wind is from the wrong direction, he just doesn't have much of an appetite

For a moment I thought it was my nutty neighbor talking about me. But he would have just called the cops.

Looks to me like your neighbors just love you,,,

I always laugh at the idiots that use that think that. It came from the feild, and it won't do any damage returning to the feild. It's the citiots who fertilize and water their lawns to no end that contribute the most to the algea blooms in the water and all the other problems that people claim farmers are the cause of.

As a farmer, I like to think I know more about how the ground works than most people in the city, save the few who are in the feild.

Donovan from Wisconsin